Author Archives: Elizabeth Jackson

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April 30, 2020

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Partner Inquiry

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Final Reflection on My Journey Through a Fifth Grade Class.

Reflecting back on the time and effort put into ERH – 411 with my partner Joe this semester, I can recognize growth academically, personally and civically. This class at first was a struggle academically but as I put more effort to better understand the readings and the PBL standards I was able to see how these standards were used not only in our own class through demonstrations but in Mrs. Cosgriff’s fifth grade class. Stepping into Mrs. Cosgriff’s classroom transported me back into time when I was in fifth grade. I forgot how engaging the classrooms are set up to be. Every inch of the classroom was covered with diverse academic material waiting for a student’s curiosity to overtake them. When I was first exploring the options of a potential “Teach Aloud” with Joe, we were speculating about how much leeway to give the fifth graders. Trying to think back to when I was in fifth grade, I didn’t give these students enough credit. Mrs. Cosgriff’s fifth grade class proven to be more engaging and creative than what I first anticipated. This allowed us more creativity with our teach aloud than originally.

As a soon to be 2nd Lt in the Marine Corps, I should be comfortable with speaking in front of others. But when I found myself in front of Mrs. Cosgriff’s classroom for the first time, I was anxious to even introduce myself. As we continued to venture back into the classroom and interact with the students more personally, my initial shyness soon washed away. Sadly, our time with Mrs. Cosgriff’s fifth grade class was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Completing this semester at home as a senior brought its own challenges. I struggled to stay on top of my schoolwork in this class and others. To find the motivation, especially when I don’t have the fifth graders to keep me accountable was hard.

I am very thankful to be have the opportunity to take this class my senior year at VMI. I fell in love with Rockbridge and found myself searching for ways to connect with the community. For my sophomore and junior year I was able to give back to the community as a firefighter at LFD. But this semester, I was able to learn from these students and have an impact, even a small one, on their educational journey.

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April 7, 2020

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Learning Philosophies

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Online Learning Through Troubling Times

The scholarly article that I found for Mrs. Cosgriff is Transformation through expeditionary change using online
learning and competence-building technologies by Donald M. Morris and Paul Lefrere.  The purpose of the scholarly article is to demonstrate a model of the usage of technology for expeditionary learning and how technology is involved with teaching currently. I believe that this article will be good for Mrs. Cosgriff and her fifth grade classroom as they navigate online learning and the struggles that come along with it. I imagine that this is tough for the fifth grade students to go from a expeditionary based learning environment on immigration to distant online schooling. The struggles that Mrs. Cosgriff will have to deal with are non cooperative parents as well as lack of technology in certain households. This article will give some insight how she will be able to maintain a expeditionary learning teaching style while doing online classes.

From the start of the article I noticed that Morris and Lefrere are focused on “higher education” and employability of the students. The article’s focus on expeditionary learning through an online venue is focused on higher education not primary education. This is great to focus on overall but is not applicable for Mrs. Cosgriff. Morris and Lefrere state that teachers should “replicate courses and curriculum practices in an online mode, adjusting for differences between online and face-to-face experiences. ” This would be a great way for Mrs. Cosgriff to translate the course work she was doing in the classroom before the Covid-19 pandemic to now. Joe and I received and email about the struggles that Mrs. Cosgriff was already enduring with the first few weeks of preparing for a possible school shutdown and getting a course schedule ready for it. Though I think this article will be insightful, I am not sure it focuses on the challenges that will come up with implementing an online course in a rural community. In the conclusion, Morris and Lefrere harps that the important aspect of this article is for the teachers and educational community to “focus on outcomes and value, not processes and quality.” Overall, I believe this article will help with some aspects as Mrs. Cosgriff transitions from face-to-face learning to online.

Work Cited:

Donald M. Norris & Paul Lefrere (2011) Transformation through Expeditionary Change Using Online Learning and Competence-building Technologies, Research in Learning Technology, 19:1, 61-72, DOI: 10.1080/09687769.2010.549205

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March 22, 2020

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Classroom Participation

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Welcome to Ellis Island1

On my second visit to Mrs. Cosgriff’s fifth grade class at Central Elementary school, I took a more hands on approach vs the first visit where I was a passive observer. My partner on the first visit was more outgoing than I was. Throughout their semester, the fifth graders were learning a lesson on immigration to the United States through Ellis Island. All of this was gearing towards a big project about immigration. The project was a simulation of Ellis Island, Mrs. Cosgriff’s class were manning the stations of Ellis Island and another fifth grade class was acting as the immigrants and visiting Mrs. Cosgriff’s room. Joe and I’s role in the classroom for this visit was to help engage with the students. We went to separate groups to help lead the discussion and research.  I went to a smaller group that originally only had three students in it. The purpose of the groups were for the students to engage in sustained inquiry about what their assigned station was. The students were given a web page that provided research on each station at Ellis Island. In my group I made sure to help guide the research more in depth by asking questions that made the students think harder about the details that go into their station. My group had two quiet students, one of them joined the group late and was unsure about what was happening. To make sure student engagement was high, I asked questions specifically to the students who were reserved. Once given the chance they were helpful to the project overall.

The invented idea for a learning activity that I came up with was centered around human rights and human trafficking. I thought it would go along well with the curriculum that Mrs. Cosgriff had already planned. My learning activity is based around the two PBL standards of public product and student voice and choice. Human rights and human trafficking is considered to be an “adult topic” but the reality is that human trafficking can happen to anyone. To help teach our children basic human rights and the prevention of human trafficking, the students would create a children’s book for those younger than them. To help ensure it is age appropriate and that the students creating the content understand it themselves, the students are doing their own, supervised,  research. The classroom would be split up into groups like how Mrs. Cosgriff did for the Ellis Island simulation.  Each group would be assigned a topic to do research on. The topics will range from, what is human trafficking, who are the victims of human trafficking, where does human trafficking occur, and how to prevent human trafficking. There are many safe websites available that the students could go to but it is up to the teacher’s discretion to find what they deem as age appropriate website for the students to use. As the students do their research and prepare their portion of the book, they are also learning about human trafficking themselves. Once the information has been edited, the teacher will place it together as a book and have it ready for the public.

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February 18, 2020

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Classroom Observation

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The Day of a Fifth Grade Scholar

On February 13th, I had my first visit to Maury Elementary school with my partner Joe Murray. We sat and observed a 5th grade classroom that is studying immigration. Throughout the class period I jotted down observations of the physical environment and also the relationship between the teacher and students. During my visit I was able to talk to a few of the students and help them with their classwork. This gave me the opportunity to observe closely how some students were more engaged than others. What I noticed about the teacher was how soft spoken she was. It seemed that she focused more on teaching while her teaching assistant walked around and kept some students in line. Later I found out that the teacher assistant can be assigned to students that might have physical or special needs for the classroom. At first I thought the teacher was going to be a pushover because it seemed like she didn’t do anything for the students that spoke out without raising their hand or checked on students who weren’t doing their work. I was quickly proven wrong when I noticed that there seemed to be classroom standards that were well established at the beginning of the year. The students kept their binders neatly in the corner of their desk, at the end of the class when she was giving her closing remarks students who stood up were quickly reprimanded. I am excited to go back and hopefully engage more with the students.

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February 6, 2020

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Expectations and Inspirations

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Expectations for Fifth Grade

My first visit for this semester is to a fifth grade class in Central Elementary school. I am excited to engage with the students on the topic of immigration. I am curious on how the teacher will cover such a seemingly controversial topic in the U.S with a younger audience.  My expectations of how the initial visit should go is shaped by my own memories of fifth grade and the reading we have read for class. I try to recall how I acted in fifth grade, attending an International Baccalaureate school in a lower income area. We had a mixture of students who were considered ‘high achievers’ that came from wealthier families and then there were students like me.  A student who couldn’t sit down longer than two minutes and liked to push boundaries by saying ‘crap’ to my teacher. My own memories of fifth grade are similar to the stories that Loretta Brady tells in “The World is Mine. Soon. I Hope. The Struggle To Raise Standards” of Hannah and Alfredo.  Hannah and Alfredo were students I was able to imagine at my own elementary and middle school. I am certain I will see students like them in my first classroom visit. My expectations will be a mixture of fifth graders who are acting out or actively participating for the new stranger in the classroom and quiet, closed off students as well.  I hope to observe how the teacher interacts individually with each student and adapting to better fit the students’ needs. I hope to catch a glimpse of my fifth grade class; a teacher acting as a lifeline for many students, saving them from life at home and giving each a chance to showcase their excellence.

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January 23, 2020

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Learning Philosophies

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Two Sides of Education

Dewey argues that there are two sides to education, psychological and social. Both are needed and neither are above each other. It is believed that psychological is the basis for the educational journey. The child has a basic desire to explore and consequentially learn. The social side is what continues the educational experience. The child needs someone to help guide their educational journey and natural inquiries. The social side of education is important because “the child has his own instincts and tendencies, but we do not know what these mean until we can translate them in their social equivalent.” The quote shows that Dewey emphasizes that both sides of education, psychological and social go hand in hand for the child’s education to be successful. The psychological side is formal and natural process while the social side of education is “a forced and external process.”

I can draw from Dewey’s argument on the two sides of education when I reflect on how I learned when I was younger and how I continue to thrive while learning. While reflecting on my childhood, Dewey’s two sides to education makes sense. As kids, we all have a knack for exploring and letting our curiosity get us in trouble. But as our psychological side of education showed, parents as well as teachers stepped in to guide our curiosity to better fit the formal education of society and better prepare us for society. If as children we never experienced the social side of education then the chances of being educated ready for a college degree would be low. Viewing Dewey’s definition of the two sides of education gives insight to how poorer populations are educated. Often the poorer children are unable to remain in school because of pressures at home where they might be needed to stay home. These children are still learning because of the psychological side but do not have the guidance from the social aspect. It does not make these children uneducated but examples on why children need both sides of education to truly be successful learners.